Talk:Shattered Realms book series/@comment-129.123.137.27-20180411225714
I feel the need to point out that Han's death was really out of character. I understand why the author did it, but still... Han never went in for fair, close up personal fights if he could help it, his instict was always to use magic or lay a trap. As he is fighting the assasins, they say nothing about their wearing amulets to protect themselves (which would make more sense for him to engage). He also showed a tendency to use illusions while fighting in Crimson Crown (a trick he learned from Crow), and 20+ years of war would have made him hone those skills. He never showed any indication that the even knew how to use a sword, much less would actually try to fight with one. His weapons of choice were always the bow or knives. I get he could have picked up swordplay, but he never showed any real inclination towards it. Bows were pretty common weapons among the Clans, and Han himself carried a bow quite often on the road, so I don't see why he wouldn't have a bow. Even if he was desperate, I couldn't see him going for an unfamilar weapon. Instincts rule in those situations, and his instinct would have been to kill them with a magic or a bow from afar. Also, Han was a paranoid even before 20+ years of war, and I couldn't see him going around without street backup or abandoning his extremely effective network of streetrats. Heck, they even imply that a ring of spies serving the queen still exists in the Fells. It would have been in character for him to have people trailing behind him and/or trailing his son who could have helped deal with the assasins. Finally, Han and his son are both part of the Gray Wolf Line. Han had the ability to see the wolves warning of threats to the line, and assasins would qualify as that. Even if the wolves didn't consider them to be heirs to the line (as males), Han was invaluable to the security of the Fells and the Line as a military asset, and the loss of both Han and Adrian would have dealt a massive blow to the Queen's ability to rule effectively with the emotional damage or if Adrian had fallen into the hands of Arden, which was the plan. Now, I'm not saying that Han didn't die. I'm just saying that between how he acted out of character, his lack of backup, and his not forseeing the disaster in some form, it just doesn't mesh well with how things are set up in the earlier books. Now you can argue that he became complacent, but wouldn't he have been even more paranoid given the war? Also, he was used to frequent assasination attempts from the Bayars, and I would think he would have been on high alert. Also, Han isn't stupid. He learns. Between Han and Raisa, there literally has not been a single time they went to meet an informant or to make a deal that did not go horribly wrong. Also, given how Han lost his own family, I can't see him letting his son go around (even if Han felt he was safe in Ragmarket) without some heavy duty magical protection, like some amulets at least, if not something made by Dancer like Raisa's armor. I can't see Han himself walking around without protection of his own. Raisa takes of her talismans and her armor all the time when she feel like she is safe or with some social pressure. Not Han. Dancer makes Han several protective talismans in the orignal series, and Han literallly never takes them off unless he absolutely has to. Even when he feels secure, he doesn't do it. The only time he removes a talisman willingly is when he takes of the Rowan talisman so Crow can "share" his head. He has been betrayed or ambushed so many times he is always on edge. Cat betrays him. Lucius betrays him by never telling him about his family. Raisa betrays (kind of) him by lying to him about who she is. Some of the former Raggers mistakenly belive he is trying to kill Raisa and tell the guard, turning almost everyone against him. The Clans planned to backstab him after he was of no more use. He only trusts Firedancer, Willo, and Raisa with his life (and maybe not even Raisa completely given her initial deception, despite his love for her). He doesn't trust anyone else. So it doesn't make sense to me he wouldn't take extreme precautions even in his own city. Also, from a story perspective, it is a really weird choice to kill Han. I get that it is supposed to be a device to push his son to seek vengence, but think about the original books. Han fakes his death once. Then the Bayars make it look like he is dead while they torture him. That's just when everyone thought he was dead. That's not even counting the number of times he almost got killed and appeared to be dead, like when he healed Raisa, got beaten within an inch of his life by the guard, got beaten within an inch of his life by the Bayars, was beaten within an inch of his life by the stairs (in a roundabout way), heck, he was nearly EATEN alive, nearly burned to death and nearly drowned (at almost the same time), and so on. Han's whole deal was that people just can't seem to kill him. And I get that there's some realism in letting a character like that die, but it feels really weird when you've had 4 books of Han faking his own death or narrowly escaping death only for him to die at the hands of a few henchmen. There isn't even enough duplicity invoved in that. He was completely cornered by the Bayars and set in impossible situations, survives and yet he gets killed by assasins? They didn't even have magic. They didn't even have ARROWS, which pretty much every earlier assasin in the series has had. Where's the unfairness? Where's the tragedy? The whole POINT of Han was that he was up against impossible odds, and while he was outnumbered, he had been in much tighter scrapes. At least let the man realize he was betrayed somehow. It's not that it was unfair that he died, it's not unfair enough. It's just frustrating to see a character killed of just as a plot device to drive another one to seek revenge. His death doesn't make sense outside of the context of a plot device. Side note, wasn't Arden about to go bankrupt 25 years ago at the end of Crimson Crown? The thanes weren't fond of the King then, and he was almost bankrupt then, so how is he still waging war more than two decades later over a petty grudge? Where are all the other ruthless Ardenen nobles? Anyways, back to Han. He killed, what, 8 assasins (who were armed with swords and crossbows) with NO MAGIC, exhausted from days of frantic travel and searching, and he can't handle a few guys with only swords with an extra 25 years of experience under his belt, to say nothing of the flash he woud have stockpiled in peacetime? No, he goes and fights them with a sword he appearently now knows how to use and actually likes using it, no illusions, and wizard fire?! REALLY?! Crow taught him countless efficent, lethal spells, illusions (which Han showed a liking to and skill in using them), numerous protective charms and he runs up with right next to them and goes at it with fire and a sword. Heck, his first spell, the thorn hedge (which he used instinctively), would have let him block of their escape AND potentially surround his son with a protective wall. He even uses that spell defensively in the books! sigh...okay, rant over. It's just really hard seeing a character from a series I've loved for for so long die. I first started reading the series more than half a decade ago, and it was one of the first (and best) YA series I ever read. I didn't even realize Flamecaster was took place in the Seven Realms Series when I first saw it, and I had just finished re-reading the series out of nostalgia when I started reading it. I felt the grief when Han's little sister was killed, fell in love with Oden's Ford (I was really sad that more books didn't take place there), savoured the anticpated meeting with Raisa at Oden's Fiord, and the revelation of her identity to Han, felt his despair when everything seemed to go wrong for him, and watched as he made the impossible happen when he married Raisa. Honestly, I would have prefered a continuation of the story from the end of Crimson Crown about how they defeated Arden. I hated the King when he was first introduced for enslaving people, but I think I hate him less now. Before, it would have been satisfying to see him get the justice and death he deserved. Now, the satasfaction of his death pales in comparison to the loss of Han Alister.